Club XXS was exposed at a music festival in the netherlands and used as a mini club, with dj booth inside and a line-up! :) It's my biggest doodle till now and it was amazing fun to do! my focus was allready on trying bigger stuff, so then a chance came by to do this huge caravan. Awesome.
Really enjoying experimenting with soft pastels. This piece was the first time I used Pastelmat. It's an amazing surface to use with pastels as it takes loads of pastel, the colour stays vibrant, and there's minimal dust
An article/rant/annotation to an illustration. A #Hackney bar and its flies.
This picture is not as sad and blue as it might at first seem, I promise.
It is early in the week and the pub becomes the territory of the most outspoken drinkers. Raised somewhere between Churchill and Harold MacMillan, a night such as this is time for them to spin out a yarn of nostalgic fantasy. Encouraged by the lack of a crowd and with space to fill, statements start to fly.
In the opening rounds the barman athletically hits back with factual blocks and reality-check haymakers; statistics and personal experiences are given. Two histories cross examined, one where 1982 means Thatcher and the Falklands, the other renders Reagan and the AIDS crisis. Stoicism and national pride vs mental health and realism.
In the latter rounds the barman is fatigued, swaying on the backbar, glasses begin to stack up as form begins to drop. The older men seem stronger than ever.
The barflies come in close now, they scrutinise his generations work ethic and make wild political comments on poverty, immigrants and the minimum wage.
The barman is close to sheer bloody despair, he maintains his defence and focuses on breathing while maintaining his professional stance.
But at the end of the night the barman knows HE will ring that bell, they will politely leave and they will return again in a week and maybe, just maybe there will be a change, common ground or maybe at least polite silence.
But what these interactions have given despite the salt in the eye is community and an exchange between generations, culture and class of those participating. No home is ever straight forward, no relative without their good and bad traits and in a world where we often slide into echo chambers online or in our physical environments, the pub is still a place where society is family, face to face, pint to pint. Or maybe it's just a room with alcohol on tap?
Dysodia is a friend's avatar name on another site. I drew this colored pencil drawing as a tribute to her. There are several "leaf moths," this one's common name is: Picture winged leaf moth.
Watercolour pencils and gouache on A4. I did this today at a Urban Sketchers meet up in the National Museum of Scotland - although, I guess, strictly speaking it does not fulfil the urban sketching requirements :D
Heard about a supposed art fight, got no idea what that is but I brung my sword to the fight..
Also I took advantage of this to try and study the style of @Dominik Mayer, @Artem Chebokha and @Andrew Maleski (once more)
I aimed to have the water look believable while painting a jellyfish with long flowing tentacles. Drawn digitally in Rebelle 6 w/very minimal effects. This is not AI nor is any part of this AI.
